Introduction
My wish to know more about my great African ancestors motivated this post. Further, for Black History Month I wanted to step outside the box of paying tribute to the popular black leaders, murdered by the US government. I am not a historian or an anthropologist but rather a student attempting to seek the truth about my ancestral past.
First, I embarked on an online literature search, aka, a poor man’s search, for African history pre-Transatlantic Slavery, unsurprisingly, there wasn’t much. And what there was, many would not consider legitimate sources. Then I stumbled upon a video or article that led me to the book Nature Knows No Color-Line by J. A. Rogers. It is the information in this research into the “Negro Ancestry in the white race” that I’d like to share with you.
There is irrefutable evidence that civilization began in Africa and that the first people were dark-skinned with wooly-hair, black African people. The oldest human skulls found in South Africa were of black Africans. The earliest Christians depicted the Virgin Mary and Christ as black. (1). Some of the greatest scholars and ancient philosophers believed (and this is without full gene mapping) man originated from Africa and that climate or rather the degree of sunlight along with racial intermixture accounted for the different races. They believed race was a dynamic process that produced new races over time. In ancient times color prejudice was minor. While slavery existed (captives from war), it was viewed as indentured servants or poor farmers as opposed to objects to be exploited and denigrated. Freed slaves could go on to serve in high positions. There was a core respect for all human beings and the contributions made by everyone based on their role or position in society.
So how did color prejudice begin? To Be Continued.
There are two videos below: the first one appeared to be a research project that was sponsored by IsraelUnite.org and the second is a collection of art at the Princeton University Art Museum that examined the roles of African/black people in 16th century Europe. Both were very informative and not long.
Black People Ruled Russia & All Europe During The Dark Ages – IUIC
The Africans of Renaissance Europe: A painted record
Source:
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- Rogers, J. A. (1980) Nature Knows No Color-Line. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.
Important post! I got across J. A. Rogers also decades ago.
Cordial regards
Dear Andreas, I’m sucking up the knowledge and want to know more.
FYI http://bit.ly/2CDNXj4 http://bit.ly/2EKWve3 You might find these videos very interesting if you hadn’t seen them before.
I can see someone, or some organization spent much time on these long videos.
Over the centuries, the use of scriptures particularly when intermixed with fabrication proved effective in creating belief and value systems based solely on prejudice, racial or religious.
Prejudice helped many evil people gain economic advantage, political advantage and social advantage.
The videos were exactly what I expected from a troll, an organization or a bot peddling hate and anger by distorting history. My post hit a nerve. 🙂
Your videos kind of segue way into the first and second chapters of the book.
“So how did color prejudice begin?” There’s no easy answer to that. And certainly not 1. Besides, I’m not a person of “finding the origin of it all”, “where it all began”, or “what’s the cause of this”. And even if you would find it, how can you be certain you found it indeed? I’m more in favor of “the here and now”. If you want to get rid of racism, don’t try to find its cause, but tackle it from the present. Like a former high school student me once asked: “Why do I have to learn about the history of Caribbean slavery? I can’t help these people anymore. They’re all dead.” I almost told him about the lessons he could learn from history, but then I remembered that rarely people do so. So I replied: “Bo tin rason (you’re right)”.
Btw, the same counts for so called psychotherapy. When with a client who came to me feeling miserable, I’m not going to look for “the cause” of his/her shit. Instead I’m going to find out what that person wants to do with the rest of her/his life, and then take it from there.
Still, I don’t want to interfere with your history journey. So maybe “Before Color Prejudice” (Frank Snowden Jr. 1991) could be a source. Here’s an excerpt, for you to get the feel of it: http://www.classics.ucsb.edu/classes/cla109/Snowden.pdf
Another more general link? http://www.understandingprejudice.org/anthol.htm
That’s why diversity is so wonderful. It breeds diversity of thoughts. To tackle an issue as complex as color prejudice, I believe it absolutely necessary to know the here and now and equally to understand its history. And that history did not begin with slavery. Actually, slavery was symptomatic of that history.
Not all problems are the same and need to be approached the same. Some are easy fixes, others involve understanding which takes time. I agree you one can never know for sure. Such is the case with most things where we make educated guesses based on indirect evidence from books, arts and legends.
Learning is understanding. Unless we learn, aren’t we bound to repeat the same mistakes?
Of course you know that the content of history, written as well as passed on orally from generation to generation, is colored by the one who writes or tells same, if not tampered with. And after that, interpreted by the reader or listener. Can be nice to search for it, though, do some research, and come up with a couple of conclusions. Maybe even learn a thing or two. But to solve acute problems? Well, maybe sometimes it could help. But all in all, I rather stick to the here and now.
There are also artifacts and fossils that help support or refute some stories.
Great. Keep digging in the past.
I love this George Orwell quote, “Those who control the present, control the past and those who control the past control the future.” If you control the present you can rewrite the past to suit your liking as was done by many rulers.
So the ones who control the present, control the past and the future? What kind of crap is that? At best it means that, up till now, nobody ever controlled the present.
And….um……maybe a couple of assholes tried to rewrite the past, but they never were able to control the past, as it was already the past.
Well they did control the future by rewriting the past. For example the Bible was interpreted by rabbis to show black skin was cursed despite they themselves being black in those days. The Bible is truly a story book. Too bad many people believe it is the world of God himself. 🙄.
By claiming black people were cursed and inserting that in the Bible it certainly impacted the future.
If you believe they did that, then they did that in their present, not in their past.
Actually they went back and changed the scriptures of the past. And that affected the future of black people. They were not alone but they used the Bible to seek retribution.
BTW, thanks for the links. Will take a look at them.
Re: “Actually they went back and changed the scriptures of the past…………” Stuff like that happened and is still happening all over the place. Same is true for hiding stuff when it’s not convenient for the leaders of the pack (whom I consider more the dogs of the herd).
The Bible? Ever heard of the gospel of Barnabas? Remember I told you once there was never a virgin Mary in the Aramaic Bible? And what about the Kabbalah? Let’s not forget Gnosticism, eh? The list is endless. As are the forgeries. So again, I’m very careful with taking the value of the past too seriously when it comes to solving nowadays problems.
Um…….btw…….uh…..huh…….did you see my FB posting of last night titled , “About Time To Clean The Place Up”? https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100015238514626
It’s been great checking out your archived posts. I’ve really wanted to learn more about Africa, it’s history, and all the various cultures. It’s even been showing up in my fiction projects like how I recently came up for a concept of an Eritrean heroine who’s part of an international superhero team for a future project. It’s also a goal of mine to take a mitochondria DNA test to find out where my maternal side of the family is from. My mom guesses it’s Nigeria which could be plausible since that nation was affected by the Transatlantic Slave Trade like a good portion of West African nations. Finding out about the history of African cultures has been so invigorating and enlightening.
” I’ve really wanted to learn more about Africa……….” Ah, ti nkoju si aye pelu resolute idi? Looto? Pade orire! 😉
Hi MBA, english please. How can I be insulted if I don’t understand what you wrote?
But of course, the moment you don’t understand the language I write in, you immediately assume it must be an insult. Oh. 😲 you were just kidding? But of course.
Anyway, with all the babble going on here about Africa, and in this posting Nigeria in particular, I thought, hey, lemme put in a couple of words in Yoruba, a major language spoken in that country.
You know? If a person really wants to learn about Africa’s history and it’s people, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to get familiar with at least some of the languages spoken there, and not only depend on translations. To get a more factual idea of what was and is going on there, eh? Compare this to what some people call the Bible. A zillion translations of those scriptures, often changed and tampered with to serve the agenda of the translator. Then, other people use these (corrupt) translation to make a point or something. Rarely one has read a truly ancient one, for instance the Aramaic version.
Sala kahle 🌍
Language was never a strength for me. However, why should that stop me from learning about my roots?
I agree that you can’t trust what you read. The Bible is an excellent example of man ’s use of ‘God’ to control and dictate behavior. It would be great if I knew ancient languages and had access to ancient works for interpretation. That’s not the case. Based on your argument should I raise my hands in defeat? I think not. I trust in my intelligence and ability to connect disparate facts and ask the questions that will lead to the truth and understanding.
One day shortly I will visit several countries in Africa, and one day I will live there. Then I will learn even more. Fortunately, knowledge is everywhere and accessible through many paths.
Still, why not try to at least get basic proficiency in, for instance, Zulu, Yoruba, en Shona? Could also be seen as part of your adventurous journey to your roots, n’est-ce pas? As….um……should do your friend Curtis. Oh well, maybe he’s fluent already, but doesn’t want to be labelled a show off here? 😈
I thought about it more and agreed learning the language is crucial if you plan to live in a country. It may be a significant obstacle and will determine which African countries I visit. Fortunately, many African countries speak English.
Ngiyajabula ukuzwa loko, Angela 😛
English please
No!
LOL so you don’t want me to know what you said.
I want you to start learning African languages!
Well translate, that will start the lesson.
Lmfao. But OK, it says: I’m glad to hear that.
You know Roald, I thought some more about what you said. Language maybe an immense barrier to me living in Africa.
Thank you again for taking an interest in my blog. I love your feedback, I learn and it forces me to think.
I believe that is an awesome idea to write a fictional book based on ancient African history. Wish I had the talent to write a book. I know a script is different than a book but Black Panther was dope. 😀 (probably not using the word correctly) Could you do something like that?
I want to do an ancestry test also.
You’re welcome, Angela. I’m happy to have some intelligent discourse on these subjects and also talking with people who care about these various issues.
I totally agree. I’ve debated on writing a fantasy story based on ancient Africa at some point, but I don’t have plot or character concepts yet. However, one series I’ve been writing for four years (it’s still unpublished) has a planet that has some parts that are analogous to ancient Africa and will have a futuristic colony later on. You should try writing a novel or try a cell phone novel if you want to break it up into smaller bits. Don’t worry, you used that term right for Black Panther. Hahaha! Are you asking me if I can write a script?
Sure thing. If you had to guess which ethnic groups were a part of your family’s DNA, what would they be?
I’m thinking Genghis Khan (joke). Probably moorish ancestors. When you read about the Moors you get the impression they were Arab Muslims but they were African Muslims and non-Muslim Africans. So much of African history was hijacked, erased or destroyed.
I have been told I have Nigerian features.
Yes write a script for a movie. Write a cell phone novel?
Gotcha. Haha! That’s right about the perception of the Moors. When I first heard about them in school, I thought they were Arabs, but I was certainly corrected when I found out about them outside of class. I wish world history and social studies classes would emphasize precolonial Africa more often without whitewashing everything.
Really? That’s interesting.
Writing a script for a movie would be great. I did it for a college project, and at one of my jobs, I co-teach at a summer camp that focuses on video production/creation where we did a brief class on screenwriting. I could start with a short film. Probably something in the realms of neorealism like the works of Jafar Panahi for example.
A cell phone novel is a form of experimental literature where you write chapters that are 70-200 words long, but they add up to a larger story. Apologies for the self-promotional stuff, but I’m serializing a cell phone novel throughout July called Gateway to the Empyrean on my fiction blog: https://cmbbwrites.wordpress.com/2018/07/02/gateway-to-the-empyrean-cirrocumulus-1/.
If you want something complete, I also have Hollandus Landing which is that one experimental alternate universe CPN I mentioned at one point. You can get it for free or by tipping. Speaking of Nigeria, the first narrator of the story Bolatito “Tito” Moyoade is a Nigerian-American character. https://books.noisetrade.com/cmbbell/hollandus-landing
You motivated me to write a cell phone novel.
I tried to download Hollandus Landing but had problems connecting to paypal.
Awesome! I’m glad you’ve been inspired to try out that literary form. Totally go for it!
Oh no! I’m sorry to hear about that. Is PayPal working for you again? If not, I can try emailing you and make a link with an attachment outside of NoiseTrade if that works for you.